In the late 1940s, the inauguration of the Venetsanos family winery in Megalochori marked a watershed moment for Santorini, signaling the end of the pre-industrial “kanava” (traditional cave cellars) era.
The mastermind behind this revolutionary project was chemist-oenologist Georgios Venetsanos. Working alongside his brother, Zannos—who, as detailed in his memoirs, had evolved into a formidable wine merchant—the Venetsanos family established the island’s very first industrial winery, kicking off its inaugural production in 1949.
The family was among Santorini’s wealthiest. Having relocated to Cairo, Egypt, during the interwar period, they returned to their homeland to acquire extensive plots of land. Among these was a spectacular estate in Megalochori, perched high on the cliffs overlooking Athinios Bay.
Architectural ingenuity: Powered by gravity
Built on the edge of the breathtaking caldera cliff directly above the port of Athinios, the Venetsanos Winery featured a brilliant architectural quirk: it was designed entirely around the law of gravity to compensate for the island’s lack of electricity.
Exploiting the steep cliffside incline, Georgios constructed the winery across four distinct tiers, with each floor dedicated to a different stage of the winemaking process:
First Level (The Terrace): This served as the weighing and receiving station. Here, donkeys arrived laden with baskets of freshly harvested grapes to dump them into receiving vats.
Second Level: Guided by gravity, the grapes dropped down to the de-stemmers, which separated the stems from the berries.
Third Level: The grapes descended into the presses to extract the juice.
Fourth Level (The Basement): The lowest tier housed the storage vats. From here, the juice was channeled through pipes snaking all the way down the cliffside directly into storage tanks at the port, where awaiting ships pumped the wine straight into their hulls for international export.
In 1963, looking to boost production efficiency, the winery introduced the very first diesel-powered electrical generator to Santorini, finally bringing automated power to the facility’s machinery.
Santorini’s unique terroir and legacy
The vineyards supplying the winery are among the oldest and most unique in the world. To survive the island’s brutal volcanic environment, the vines are woven close to the ground into natural, basket-shaped rings known as kouloura. This ingenious, centuries-old cultivation technique protects the delicate grapes from the fierce Aegean winds and the scorching, salt-laced sea breeze.
Always ahead of his time, Georgios Venetsanos expanded operations in 1967 by officially bottling his own white, rosé, and red wines.
Though ownership of the historic winery eventually left the family, it came full circle in 2015 when it was reacquired by a direct descendant, Nikos Zorzos. Following an extensive and highly successful renovation, the Venetsanos Winery reopened its doors, elegantly transforming this architectural masterpiece into a world-class, must-visit cultural and wine-tasting destination.
Related: The Underwater Wines of Santorini
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